Visitors to the Maine Art Gallery, 15 Warren St. in Wiscasset, will find two shows running concurrently this month. The gallery’s main floor is filled with impressions of our woods, lakes, streams and coastline created during the recent “Paint It Maine” event, while the second floor offers “Art of Alchemy: Collage/Mixed Media,” a modern fine art technique in which wild and wonderful compositions are created by overlapping pieces of material, such as photographs, fabric, colored and textured paper and other types of mixed media. 

Highlights from the plein air show include the prize winners: Deena Ball’s “Deep Woods," Michael Vermette’s “Smalls Falls, Rangely,” and Eric Glass’s “Green and Gold, A Summer Garden.” 18 artists were selected to participate in this year’s event.

Upstairs, “Art of Alchemy: Collage/Mixed Media” takes one into a vastly different world of art in which painting, real-world objects, and printed images are combined into a single work. This show also includes assemblages — three-dimensional art made from everyday items, scraps, and found objects such as books, old clocks, and bits of wood.

Next up at the gallery is the last show of the season, “Made in Maine: Members Show,” featuring  recent work by artist members of the Maine Art Gallery. Works range from rigorously representational to completely non-objective, with stops in between. This year’s show will also highlight work from some of the early members of the gallery, emphasizing their important role in the history of the visual arts on the coast of Maine. “Made in Maine” runs from Sept. 10 through Oct. 18 with a reception for artists on Saturday, Sept. 12 at 4 p.m.

Gallery hours are Thursday - Sunday, 11 a.m.- 4 p.m. The Maine Art Gallery is grateful to Barnes Custom Window Treatments for sponsorship of “Plein Air: Paint It Maine and to J. Edward Knight Insurance for its sponsorship of “The Art of Alchemy: Collage/Mixed Media Exploration."

The gallery will be open later for the Aug. 27 Wiscasset Art Walk. 

A nonprofit organization, the Maine Art Gallery, is dedicated to the advancement and preservation of the visual, fine and applied arts through exhibitions, lectures, demonstrations and educational programs for children and adults since 1958.

www.maineartgallerywiscasset.org and Facebook at Maine Art Gallery Wiscasset